Thursday, 27 February 2014

Extremadura
is a region at the periphery of a country at the periphery of Europe.
It is a place about which generally little is spoken of across the
continent, apart from about birds. For example there is the Facebook
group "Extremadura
Birdwatching",
created by Ib Helles Olesen,
a Dane living in Copenhagen, giving information about birds in
Extremadura and taking into account posts from this blog. Interesting
records also appear. One example is a photograph of a Lanner
Falcon(Falco
biarmicus),
a second-year immature, seen in the district of Cuatro
Lugares, close
to Monroy (Cáceres), on 4 May 2013 by another Dane, John
D. Andersen.

We
had a post in June 2013 about
this species concerning a sighting near Trujillo which was of another
individual (a subadult). In that post there is further information
about the status of the species in Extremadura. The record described
here from Monroy would be the fifth
confirmed record in Extremadura,
all of them in steppe areas (La Serena, Llanos de Cáceres-Trujillo,
Cuatro Lugares), apart from one in Plasencia. The species has been
recorded in January,
May (2 records) and June (two records) and
all pertain to immature
birds.

We thank Ib Helles for his initiative in spreading the news
and look forward to further collaboration in the future.

Saturday, 22 February 2014

A
Snow Finch (Montifringilla
nivalis),
the first one seen with certainty in Extremadura, was recorded on
19th
February 2014 on the Jálama peak (Acebo, Cáceres) by Alberto
Gil whilst
he was undertaking a botanical study. The individual (not
photographed) was present on patches of snow top of the peak, at
about 1,500 metres above sea-level, the third highest point in the
Sierra de Gata and on the border with Salamanca province. It was seen
perched and in flight and giving its typical call. There were
close-by four Alpine Accentors (Prunella
collaris),
which are scarce but not unusual in Extremadura in the winter.

The
high montane habitat is poorly represented in Extremadura. Given its
scarcity and difficult access, it is little visited by
ornithologists, and therefore it is not unusual that it is Alberto
Gil (see
personal
blog), an experienced naturalist with a wide knowledge of montane
flora, who has provided us with most of the knowledge about
alpine-zone bird species in Extremadura, especially in the breeding
season (read
more).

It
is important to note that in the map for this species in the Atlas of
Birds in Winter in Spain (PDF)
there is a spot record in the centre of Cáceres. This is based on a
record published in error in Ardeola
and withdrawn shortly afterwards.

The
Snow Finch is a high montane Palaearctic species. The
nearest breeding populations are in the Cantabrian Mounatins, the
Pyrenees and the Alps, where they occupy the highest zones, in alpine
pasture or scrub, very close to the snow-line. Although
the winter distribution is very similar to the breeding range,
with a small descent because of snow coverage (about 400 metre
descent in the Picos de Europa), wider movements have recently been
shown for the population in the Alps (Switzerland and Austria) that
have reached the eastern Pyrenees, with displacement of more than
1,000 km. In
Span there are several
records in the mountains of the Mediterranean arc, betweenCatalonia
and Alicante. As well as on the Balearics.
There
are also records in the Sierra
Nevada and in Portugal (four
records, three of them on the coast, including one of Cape St.
Vincent). Almost in Extremadura, there are at least five known
records on the Salamanca
slope of the Sistema Central,
referring to groups of between 1
and 25 birds on
the Sierras of Candelario, Lagunilla and Peña de Francia. The record
posted here extends it presence to west, being perhaps the first in
the Sierra de Gata, and suggests that the Snow Finch. Although
scarce, may occur more often than thought in the Sistema Central.
Determining the origin of this bird is complicated, since although
the breeding area in the Cantabrian Mountains is closest, ringing
data would not rule out either a Pyrenean or even an Alpine origin.

Thursday, 20 February 2014

TRANSLATED BY MARTIN KELSEYAlmost
at the very end of 2013, on 30th
December, Fergus Crystal had the good fortune to find a Lesser
Yellowlegs(Tringa
flavipes)
at Puebla de Alcollarín (Badajoz),
in the district of Vegas Altas, which straddles the provinces of
Cáceres and Badajoz. As we posted
earlier,
this was only the second record in Extremadura of this rare American
wader. The first was a bird on autumn passage (08/08/1999, Valdesalor
reservoir, Cáceres). This second bird is particularly interesting
because it is one of the very few confirmed over-wintering records in
the Iberian peninsula. The bird has remained in the same area in
which it was first discovered in December. This winter it seems that
one or two Lesser Yellowlegs have also stayed on in the Algarve
(Portugal). This magnificent photo (above) published by Santiago Avis
serves as a deserved excuse to provide you with an update on this
bird.

It
was first found on 30thDecember
2013 (F.
Crystal), and seen again that same afternoon (Marc Gálvez, José
Guerra, José Gómez Aparicio). On 7th
January 2014 it
was relocated byMartin
Kelsey in an adjacent area, where it was seen on 8th (Alberto
Gil) and
on 11th
January (Juan
Pablo Prieto, Francisco Montaño, Sergio Mayordomo, César Clemente,
Javier Prieta, Eva Palacios, M. Gálvez, J. Guerra, Antonio Calvo,
Pepe Guisado, Pilar Goñi and Neil Reinwick) and
then on 10th(M.
Kelsey) and
18th
February (S.
Avís).

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Pintail
(Anas acuta). Female 2º year. Carrying a pale blue nasal band
[12]. It was marked in the Gargáligas reservoir (Badajoz) on 11th
December 2012 and was seen in northern France on its first spring
migration (2nd March 2013) and at Galisteo (Cáceres) eon
its second autumn journey (25th September 2013, photo). Most of the
Pintail that winter in Spain originate from northern Russia.

During
2013SEO/BirdLife
brought its vast databank
from ringing up to date(more
than seven million birds ringed and about 400,000 recoveries). With
this information now updated, members of the public can now access it
through a new appwww.anillamientoseo.org through
which one can consult the information, which is updated every day.
Furthermore, it allows one to enter recoveries as well as requesting
data on ringing and recoveries for scientific study.

In
2013 SEO/BirdLife
took over the tracking management from ICONA, which had been
responsible for the scientific ringing of wild birds, following a
pause of two years, because of lack of funding from the Ministry of
the Environment. During
2013 59,500 data were handled,
that is to say 59,500 tales of travelling birds. Amongst them, we
would like to highlight two related to Extremadura.
Sadly, in
both cases, the information came from birds killed by hunters.

The
first, a Pintail (Anas acuta) was ringed by
the University of Extremadura in Badajoz province in 2009 and
recovered in June 2013 in Archangel (in the north of European
Russia) a distance of 4,243 km. It represented the longest
distance recovery from Extremadurain
2013 and the second longest from Spain.

The
second, a Song Thrush
(Turdus
philomelos)
was ringed as a nestling in Estonia (in
Toolse, Laane-Virumaa) on 20th
June 2013 and recovered on 17th
November the same year in Olivenza
(Badajoz) after 3,307 kms from its place of origin and
168 days afterwards. This was the second longest journey recorded in
2013.